The itsy bitsy spider
by Future Writer Girl
Summary: comfortable. In a way, you could use that word to sum up Severus' life in a whole. He was comfortable with his living situation, he had the basement to do his work alone while still looking over his mother. He was comfortable with the in flow of customers. Most importantly, he was comfortable with his relationship status: Single.


Severus Snape was comfortably seated by his fireplace, with a book in one hand, and coffee in the other. His drink was neither too hot or too cold, and his book was a decent read- surely one he would have to recommend to Lily later. At quarter after one, he set down his book and took the last sip of his drink, before heading down into his lab to complete that potion he was making for Mr. Edwards' - ahem - issues in the bedroom.

Just after graduating Hogwarts, Severus opened up a small potions pharmacy. The business was actually something of a success, with enough money to keep him and his mother comfortable. There was that word again, comfortable. In a way, you could use that word to sum up Severus' life in a whole. He was comfortable with his living situation, he had the basement to do his work alone while still looking over his mother. He was comfortable with the in flow of customers. Most importantly, he was comfortable with his relationship status: Single.

Lily had tried setting him up on several dates, with all very nice women, who had just about bored him to death before the appetizer had arrived. He had just decided he would focus on his job for now, until the right woman came around. Lily tried to argue that the perfect woman wouldn't just fall from the sky, but his mind had already been made up. No dating. However, everything changed that cool spring afternoon.

He had just started on ' potion when someone started rapidly pounding on the door. Severus tried to ignore it, but after a few seconds he realized that they probably wouldn't go away. He was sure it was a salesman, so he opened the door prepared to chew someone's head off, until he saw the petite frame standing in his doorway.

She was beautiful, just not in the average sense. The more you started at her face, the prettier she got. The first thing that stood out were her eyes, they were such a pure blue that they seemed to be glowing, with Freckles scattered over the bridge of her nose. She was so tiny, maybe 5'2, hardly reaching his armpits.

"Can you help me?" The woman asked, her voice seemed to be so soothing, like honey. Except she was distressed, her pupils dilated, her chest was rising and falling quicker than a woman of her age- not that he was looking or anything.

"Excuse you?" Severus asked, his brow furrowing, making the woman become more distressed, to the point where she seemed close to hyperventilating. "Uh, pardon me, I meant to say… Yes, what do you need" He said quickly, before the tears started to fall. Severus could make a draught of living death so that one drop could kill a whole classroom- but he could not handle tears. Not even Lily's.

She smiled widely at him "Oh good lord thank you! Thank you! Follow me!" She said, grabbing his arm before he had a chance to protest. She lead him across the street to one of the nicer homes on the block, obviously the owner had tried to spruce the place up, with some roses on the front step, and a very, very bright door.

The young woman opened the door and lead him into the kitchen with the doors of all of the cabinets taken off. She gripped his arm tightly and pointed down to the floor, where there was the tiniest spider in the world on the floor.

"You have to be kidding me" Severus said stupidly, looking over at the woman who was staring down at the spider like it had killed her whole family, and she was next. "That has got to be the tiniest spider in the world!" Severus scoffed.

"But-" She tried to say, but Severus interrupted her.

"I have work to do! and you drag me away to kill the smallest spider in the world!" He laughed at the stupidity of this whole situation, once again she tried to speak, but Severus just held up his hand. "Do you want me to kill it? Sure- I'll kill it!" He scoffed turning around, only to find the biggest tarantula he had ever seen in his life.

Both of them screamed at the same time and ran into the other room, she jumped up on her couch and started to jump up and down and pointing to the kitchen. Severus was over in the corner trying not to cower and curl up in the fetal position, every thought he had was about his father. How he had used to lock him in the shed with all of the spiders, or one time when Severus had used magic on his father to protect his mother, when Tobias had taken him by the scruff of his neck and made him sleep in the broken deep freeze in the shed, where the spiders had crawled over him all night. Who knows how many he had swallowed!

"Kill it!" She yelled over at him, still pointing at the god-sized spider, as if just pointing would make it go away.

"No!" Severus shouted back in retaliation "Do you see how big that thing is?"

"Yes, I do have eyes, thank you!" The woman shouted back at him, when suddenly an idea struck him. He grabbed his wand out of his back pocket and glanced around, fixating on a picture frame on the wall. He flicked his wand and the picture fell to the ground, and the woman glanced over for a fraction of a second, giving him just enough time to transfigure the tarantula, into a harmless black spider.

When the woman glanced back she seemed to be in shock, and blinked her eyes several times, almost like she wanted to see the giant spider again. Severus walked over and stepped on the small thing, glancing back over at the damsel in distress who had the strangest little lopsided smile, she smiled more with her left side than her right.

"I swear to god it looked bigger" She closed her eyes and cringed, as she stepped off the sofa she held out her hand "I'm Anita Delgado, your new neighbor"

"Severus Snape" Severus smirked back at her and shook her hand. She blushed and let go of his hand and looked back into her kitchen.

"I know it's a mess, but, would you like to stay for some tea? Or coffee?" Anita asked, as she played with the tip of her hair, twirling it around her fingers. He glanced over at the clock and shook his head.

"Regrettably I can't, I'm meeting a friend" Severus said, her face fell a little but nodded. A look overcame her face and smiled again.

"You know, I'm having a party saturday night, just a few friends over for dinner- and I'd just love it if you came" She said, touching his arm. His brow furrowed in confusion. "I mean, it's the least I can do for saving me from that spider- please?" Anita asked again, and severus sighed.

"Alright- I warn you, i'm not a very sociable person" He said, using the exact words Lily had told him to use. Apparently saying, I just really hate 95% of the world, was not an appropriate response. She smiled brightly anyway, tucking and un-tucking her hair behind her ears.

"That's fine, you can come later, when everyone is trickling out" Anita said "It will start around eight, so if you wanted if you came for ten, that would work."

Severus smiled "Wonderful, now I really have to go" He said and she nodded and walked him to the door. "Thank you Anita, it's a pleasure to meet you"

"Yourself as well Severus" She said smiling, and just as she was about to close the door she peeked out around it. "By the way, great transfiguration on the spider, good call"

_  
><strong>This is one of the first things I've written in a very long time, and i'm quite proud of it. I'd love to hear what you think! I may continue, but who knows really?<strong>

**thanks, and until next time…**

**FRG**


End file.
